Terps celebrate after they defeated Northwestern 9-6 in the semi-finals of the 2014 NCAA division 1 women’s lacrosse tournament on May 23, 2014 at Johnny Unitas Stadium.
Cathy Reese knows firsthand how difficult it is to repeat a championship season.
Before she became coach of the Terrapins women’s lacrosse team in 2007, she played at this university from 1995 to 1998. She was also an assistant coach with the team from 1999 to 2003. During that span, the program won seven straight national titles in her four years as a player and her first three as an assistant.
But since her return to College Park as head coach in 2007, Reese’s squad hasn’t pieced together back-to-back national championship victories. It’s a feat she hopes to accomplish, with her top-ranked team this season after winning the NCAA tournament in 2014.
The Terps open the defense of their title Sunday at William & Mary.
“Every year is a different year, and I’ve been fortunate as a player to be on teams that have won back-to-back championships. And as a coach, I think the important thing, and I always try to remind our team of it, is this is a different year,” Reese said. “We need to live in the moment, and we need to enjoy what we’re doing. And nothing that happened last year matters. Nothing that they hear people say matters. All that matters is our group and how we perform together.”
To do so, Reese will rely on upperclassmen leadership from an 11-player senior class after just one starter from 2014 graduated. The Terps also returns multiple underclassmen who were nationally recognized for their play a year ago.
Midfielder Taylor Cummings returns as the winner of the 2014 Tewaaraton Trophy, given to the country’s most outstanding player. The junior led the team in goals (63), draw controls (128), ground balls (37) and caused turnovers (30). She was the first sophomore ever to win the award.
Midfielder Zoe Stukenberg, meanwhile, is set to build on her ACC Co-Freshman of the Year campaign after she scored 35 goals.
While returning players such as Cummings and Stukenberg have established expectations, attacker Megan Whittle’s impact remains to be seen. The freshman was the nation’s top recruit and is expected to earn playing time right away.
“When you come into a team that won the championship last year, I think it can be a little intimidating sometimes,” Reese said. “Megan is a great attacker. She dodges hard. She has the ability to score, and she’s not afraid to go and to play.”
With the addition of Whittle, the increased experience for last year’s freshmen and sophomores and an established veteran presence, the Terps will look to continue to use their fast transition and quick substitution game to keep opposing defenses in flux.
Last season, the Terps employed an unorthodox balance of attackers and midfielders at times but would quickly substitute upon gaining possession.
“We’d have three attackers in and five out, and as soon as we clear the ball, we’ll have someone run out and have an attacker come in,” defender Megan Douty said. “We’re just bumping each other off and just run as fast as you can off the field.”
While their strategy on the field remains similar, the Terps’ transition to the Big Ten offers some unknowns.
Unlike the ACC, the Big Ten schedules conference games at the end of the season. The Terps play No. 2 North Carolina in their second game of the season, a match normally reserved for late March or April, Reese said. The early schedule openings, however, provide the Terps with opportunities to face other top teams, such as No. 4 Florida on March 14, for the first time in the regular season.
Despite new conference opponents on the horizon, the drive to repeat as national champions for the first time since 2001 remains the Terps’ focus when they begin their season at William & Mary.
“We know … what it feels like to win,” attacker Brooke Griffin said. “We compete for that every single day and want to get better, so that’s our goal to the end of the season.”
